Unless otherwise stated, all images, content and recipes are original and are the sole property of Mary Foreman, DeepSouthDish.com. No photographs or other content may be used without prior written consent.

Privacy Disclosure

Any personal information you provide (e.g., name, email address, etc) will never be released to any entities outside Deep South Dish. As with most websites and blogs across the Internet, third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to websites.

Affiliate Disclaimer

Deep South Dish is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products at amazon.com. Your support is greatly appreciated - Thank You!

Food, family and memories are as intertwined in the South as if woven on the same thread. At any function we attend, from a party to a wedding to a funeral, we are as likely to talk as much about the food that was there, as we are about why we are gathered. ~Mary Foreman

I'm your cook, not your doctor. ~PAULA DEEN

I found out what the secret to life is: friends. Best friends. ~Ninny Threadgoode

Though the origins and stories vary (as they often do), one of those stories says that po'boys originated in New Orleans back in the 1920s, when two brothers, Clovis and Benjamin Martin, opened a restaurant on St. Claude Avenue. It is also said that when streetcar drivers went under a strike in the late 20s, the brothers, former streetcar drivers themselves, helped out those on strike by making up cheap sandwiches from the shredded leftovers of roast beef which they then dipped in some gravy, and they would serve out of the back of their restaurant to the striking workers. When a kitchen cook would spot one of the workers headed to the back door, he would belt out "here comes one of those poor boys" and the name kind of stuck.

So, if you don't know what a po' boy is, it's a sandwich made by using French bread - typically a longer, more thin long type of French bread, but not the super skinny baguette bread. You can get away with the wider loaves of French Bread sold in most grocery store delis too. Then you can stuff it with virtually anything really, but down south here along the Gulf Coast, that is most often first and foremost some kind of seafood - fried shrimp, fried oysters or patties made with crabmeat. Fried soft shell crab is also particularly good especially when it's molting season for crabs and you can get them fresh. Yum.

And... y'all know I am all about making things your own in the kitchen. But ...

You will see all kinds of sandwiches across the internet these days called "po'boys" that aren't really close to what the original intent of the sandwich is. It is a simple working man's (or woman's) sandwich, not some fancied up, sauced up, "sophisticated" manner of sandwich. There is nothing sophisticated about a po'boy y'all!!

Second to seafood would probably be the alleged original ... a dripping, sloppy roast beef po'boy, dressed and pressed over here in Mississippi and loaded with plenty of debris, little pieces of roast beef and gravy, maybe with cheese and most often that's white cheese of some kind, often provolone. Mama used to say, "if it ain't dripping and sloppy, it ain't good." I made a couple of those the other day for hubs and me and man oh man, were they good! Course there's the usual standard ham and cheese, sausage, hamburger, meatball, fish, pork, turkey and just about any other kind you can drum up in the imagination too.

Now Mississippi and Louisiana, while we love one another like adoring sisters, we do our po'boys just a little bit different.

Most Mississippi po'boy purists are gonna go "dressed and pressed" no matter the kind and that's a bit different than how New Orleans does 'em. Dressed simply means to garnish it, usually with mayo, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and maybe an occasional pickle. Pressed means that whole sandwich is placed into a sandwich iron - sort of like a panini press - which presses the po'boy together, and creates a slightly crunchy and crusty outside while maintaining the chewy soft texture of the french bread inside. Who knew that Mississippi was in on a trend way before paninis made sandwich food fashionable.

Po'boys are an experience that you must taste for yourself, should you ever happen to make it down here to the Gulf Coast. My best friend I grew up with lives in Texas now. Every once in awhile she makes it back "home" and when she does, it's usually a must to make the po'boy rounds, having a different po'boy at a different place every day she is here. Yep. They really are that good.

☛ Are you on Facebook? If you haven't already, come and join the party! We have a lot of fun & there's always room for one more at the table.

Material Disclosure: Unless otherwise noted, you should assume that post links to the providers of goods and services mentioned, establish an affiliate relationship and/or other material connection and that I may be compensated when you purchase from a provider. You are never under any obligation to purchase anything when using my recipes and you should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

3 comments:

oh man does this look scrumptious... we have poor boys up in NE Ohio..way different than down in the south..they are good and I acquire a taste for them from time to time.. You will usually find some type of sausage or kielbasi, with cole slaw and topped w/french fries, smothered in a BBQ sauce on a hoagie bun... I saw Emeril make the oyster ones one time..oooooohhhhh! I couldn't find fresh oyster at the grocery store. I don't remember what I made it was good, but a variation on a theme..My husband would definately like to try the ones you made...they look awesome....

CA po'boy sandwiches will put you in the poorhouse! My mom used deli rolls with mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, cream cheese, alfalfa sprouts, sliced ham, turkey, roast beef, and at least 2 kinds of sliced cheese. Surprised to buy the ingredients when I was an adult and realized how much those po'boy sandwiches really cost. No wonder it wasn't an everyday meal in our household of 9.

Thanks for taking the time to comment - I love hearing from readers and I read every single comment and try to respond to them right here on the site, so stop back by!

From time to time, anonymous restrictions and/or comment moderation may be activated due to comment spam. I also reserve the right to edit, delete or otherwise exercise total editorial discretion over any comments left on this blog. If your comment serves only to be snarky, mean-spirited or argumentative, it will be deleted. Please mind your manners.

Hey Y’all! Welcome to some good ole, down home southern cooking. Pull up a chair, grab some iced tea, and 'sit a bit' as we say down south. If this is your first time visiting Deep South Dish, you can sign up for FREE updates via EMAIL or RSS feed, or you can catch up with us on Facebook and Twitter too!

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients. ~Julia Child

The classic southern plate for supper is made up of meat and three, cornbread or rolls & a tall glass of sweet iced tea.

Oftentimes what makes a recipe southern, is as much a state of mind as it is a matter of geography - Southerners simply decide a particular food is southern, and that's that." ~Rick McDaniel, Food Historian

Material Disclosure: This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program,
an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Unless otherwise noted, you should assume that post links to the providers of goods and services mentioned, establish an affiliate relationship and/or other material connection and that I may be compensated when you purchase from the provider. You are never under any obligation to purchase anything when using my recipes and you should always perform due diligence before buying goods or services from anyone via the Internet or offline.

DISCLAIMER: This is a recipe site intended for entertainment. By using this site and these recipes you agree that you do so at your own risk, that you are completely responsible for any liability associated with the use of any recipes obtained from this site, and that you fully and completely release Mary Foreman and Deep South Dish LLC and all parties associated with either entity, from any liability whatsoever from your use of this site and these recipes.

ALL CONTENT PROTECTED UNDER THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT. CONTENT THEFT, EITHER PRINT OR ELECTRONIC, IS A FEDERAL OFFENSE. Recipes may be printed ONLY for personal use and may not be transmitted, distributed, reposted, or published elsewhere, in print or by any electronic means. Seek explicit permission before using any content on this site, including partial excerpts, all of which require attribution linking back to specific posts on this site. I have, and will continue to act, on all violations.